Urban Green Care
Outdoor activity 1
Discovering the urban green care initiatives next door!
Urban green care activities are aimed at people of all ages and aim to improve people’s physical and mental health and well-being through interaction with nature. Green Care programs and initiatives have been created and developed with a person-centered approach in order to maximize the benefits and safety of the individual. However, you may not know much about these activities or initiatives, you may not have seen such urban green care activities in person or read about some of their benefits for the individual and society and you may not be sure if these are true and want to find out! But surely this cannot be done from the comfort of your home or your laptop! So it’s time to get out there in your neighbourhood, in your city, in green spaces and find out for yourself through observation, discussion and contact with people and groups engaged in urban green care activities.
Bearing in mind the actions and initiatives that can be included in the wide range of urban green care which you can see in the table below:
Go to green spaces either in your neighbourhood or in your city [e.g., parks, community gardens, allotments, community forests etc.] where you know or have seen on the Internet that urban green care activities such as the examples in the table are taking place.
If you have no idea, don’t know, or simply haven’t noticed in your daily life around you where such actions may be taking place in your area or city your mobile phone or laptop is your research weapon! Do a quick research either in search engines or in social media posts and pages e.g. Facebook, Instagram and you will surely find a group or the program of a group or an urban green care activity or event somewhere near you.
Arm yourself with courage, kindness and patience and on the day you have available time and appetite go to the green space nearest to your home where such activities take place or the one you prefer and believe expresses you the most! Your main task is:
- to carefully observe the urban green care activity you see
- talk to people who participate or organize this activity
- fill out the discovery form!